The Royals beat the Blue Jays, 6-3, in Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday afternoon, giving the Royals a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. The series now shifts to Toronto for at least two games (maybe three, if the Blue Jays can win at least one).
Here are seven things to know about Saturday's game.
1. The Royals appear to be the new Cardinals
Remember when the Cardinals seemed like this impossible-to-kill zombie in the playoffs? We have the 2011 Game 6 win over the Rangers in the World Series followed by a comeback in Game 7. The next season they came back from an early 6-0 deficit to take down the Nationals in Game 5 of the NLDS. The examples from the 2011-14 postseasons of them coming back when it didn't seem like they should were seemingly countless.
In fact, it even coined a social media term: Cardinals Devil Magic.
Don't the Royals have it now? After that unlikely run last season that started with a ridiculous comeback and then an extra-inning win in the wild-card game and continued nearly to a World Series win, they were those guys.
This time around, they were down 2-1 in the ALDS to the Astros, facing a 6-2 deficit with only six outs left. And they came back. They came back in Game 5, too, to win the series.
In Game 2 of the ALCS Saturday, David Price was dominating them through six innings and they were down 3-0. They put up a five-spot in the seventh.
There's also this:
The Royals are now 16-3 during the past two postseasons, in games in which Madison Bumgarner doesn't pitch.
— Andrew Simon (@AndrewSimonMLB) October 17, 2015
Royals Devil Magic?
We might be there.
2. The David Price postseason narrative lives on
Alcides Escobar singled off the first pitch Price threw in Game 2, but after that Price was in total control for six innings. He would set a Blue Jays postseason record by retiring 18 consecutive hitters.
Most importantly, given that the Royals are a great contact team, he missed bats, striking out seven in those six innings.
Ever since his rough outing in Game 1 of the ALDS, we heard way too much about Price's postseason track record (0-6 as a starter, 5.04 ERA overall). The Jays even forced him into Game 4, essentially wasting him, in order to go with youngster Marcus Stroman in Game 5. Then Marco Estrada was pegged to get the ball in Game 1 of the ALCS.
It just seemed like maybe manager John Gibbons had lost a little confidence in Price while many others let a very small sample of postseason failures override what we know to be true: Price is one of the best pitchers in the world.
He went out and showed it in Game 2 for six innings.
Things came off the tracks in the seventh inning, but let's actually look at what happened to start it:
- The defense allowed the first runner on.
- Two singles followed, but neither were struck overly hard.
- Price got his double-play ball, but Eric Hosmer was stealing to prevent it.
Price was squared up by Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon and credit must be given for setting Hosmer in motion on the aforementioned grounder. If, however, you only see "five earned runs" and automatically think it has something to do with Price being terrified to pitch in big games, I feel like you're missing the picture in this one.
Ultimately, though, this opinion doesn't matter. People are going to see the five earned runs and talk nonstop about 0-7 until Price dominates for an entire postseason game. That's just how it works.
3. Ned Yost stuck with Yordano Ventura too long
Royals starter Ventura was tasked with matching zeroes with Price, and he almost did it through five. His Royals were only down 1-0.
Heading into the sixth, Ventura was going to be facing the best 2-3-4 combination in baseball in Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. It would be the third time through the order.
Hitters against Ventura this season:
First time through: .246/.307/.333
Second time through: .241/.316/.345
Third time through: .272/.348/.506
That's a significant spike, especially in the power department. This isn't a second guess because Ventura only allowing two runs with zero home runs isn't what I expected. I thought one of these three would take him yard. It could have been Encarnacion once both Donaldson and Bautista reached.
Especially with such a strong bullpen, there was no reason to try and stretch another inning out of Ventura.
Of course, it ended up not mattering and will be buried, because ...
4. You can't make gaffes against the Royals
All the Royals require, especially in the postseason it seems, is a little opening. As noted earlier, Price had retired 18 straight hitters. This was leading into the seventh inning. He was in total control. The leadoff batter was Ben Zobrist, who hit a soft pop up between Ryan Goins and Jose Bautista. A miscommunication caused the ball to fall in and the Royals kicked open the door, scoring five runs to take the lead and win the game. It all goes back to point number one, no? Devil Magic!
5. Encarnacion's finger looks fine
Encarnacion was removed from Game 1 thanks to an injury to his middle finger that prevented him from properly gripping his bat. He got a cortisone shot before the game and then laced a single in his first at-bat. He later added an RBI single. He should be fine moving forward.
6. The strike zone was pretty bad
We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because hitters and pitchers should adjust and it was bad for both sides, but Laz Diaz's strike zone was not good, especially against right-handed hitters. Here's the zone, via Brooksbaseball.net
Red square and triangles shouldn't be outside the box while green ones shouldn't be inside. Robots would have been better in this game.
7. The Blue Jays have been here before
They were in an 0-2 hole last round and came back to win three straight and advance. Of course, that was against an 88-win Rangers team and this is against a 95-win Royals team that went to the World Series last year. The Blue Jays do have an extra loss to work with, though, this being a best-of-seven series. That and the fact that they'll draw confidence from the comeback last round means this is far from over.
